Smoky Mountians

Whow! What a busy summer, with the storm damage, and getting our house back together. Along with everything else we found a replacement for our Dolphin. Our new to us traveling home is a 39' Winnebago Adventurer. We bought our new home on wheels August 9th.

We took it on a shake down trip, and so far so good. Bob and Milissa Merritt rented a motor home, and hit the road with us headed for the Smoky Mountains. We stayed at River Plantation RV Park in Sevierville, Tenn. We were backed up to a river where one could see several large trout, and Milissa counted 12 turtles. We arrived Friday September 5th, just in time for the Pigeon Forge Shades of the Past hot rod gathering. It is similar to the dream cruise in Detroit, street rods, muscle cars, rat rods, and more! Next weekend is the Rod Run so more cars this week. It's really neat to see all the different cars, and the folks lining their chairs along the street. We were told that as many as 10,000 cars would be in the area in those two weeks! No way to see all of them!! We visited the Smoky Mountain Knife Works. I think any knife you can think of is there! I did see a small pocket knife that I liked, until I saw the price -$289.00!!
One must see in person to capture the beautiful scenery of the Smokies. The pictures just can't capture all the beauty! Smoky Mountain National Park is truly awesome! We ventured to the highest point in the area called Klingman's Dome, which was a half mile walk uphill from the parking lot. That was a mighty LONG half mile!! I might add the view was worth it. We spent most of the day in the Blue Ridge area. We went back to Gatlinburg a couple of times just to take in the sites and enjoy the scenery. We also went to Cherokee which is an Indian reservation where there is a Harra's casino in the village. We checked it out, but didn't gamble.

I don't know what happened to the time, but the week sure flew by. Thursday we drove to Cades Cove (in the National park) where there were several old homes and barns, and also a grist mill. This was a day for wild animals. We saw several deer, mostly does, but some bucks with big antlers!! We were fortunate enough to see a black bear which was very close, and as you can see in the pictures walked across the road right in front of the car as we were taking his picture. It was almost like he posed for us. There are approximately 1500 black bears in the park and we were told that they are always looking for food! There is also a pretty hefty fine for feeding any of the wildlife in the Park.

We stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park on the way to Pigeon Forge and really enjoyed it, so we decided to stop on the way home to check it out. We took a wagon ride around the the park to get some personal insight about the area. We then walked through the barns and grounds. The jumpers were competing on Sunday, so we were able to watch them practice. There are several breeds , including thoroughbred racing champions . Those horses certainly live the "life of Riley"! They are quite pampered, but they had all earned this life. One horse named Cigar had almost made 10 million dollars for his owners!!

We cooked out one last time on Friday and headed home on Saturday (Sept. 13). Heading home we found that hurricane Ike had done a job on the gas prices--$3.99 to $4.09!! We'll just wait a few days before filling up the motor home, hoping that the prices come down. The pictures are posted pretty much as taken. I didn't take the time to edit. We really enjoyed the Smoky Mountain area , and will probably visit again.